Boris Kurdi winner of the 22nd Pernod Ricard Corporate Foundation Prize

The 22nd Pernod Ricard Foundation Prize was awarded to visual artist Boris Kurdi as part of the group exhibition “Bonaventure (Trafiquer les Mondes)” conceived by Lilou Vidal, guest curator of the 2021 edition of this prestigious event. Kurdi received this award on Friday 22 October during a ceremony held for the first time in the Foundation’s new premises located within Pernod Ricard’s headquarters in Paris’s Saint Lazare district.

Since 1999, the Pernod Ricard Foundation Prize has been promoting the recognition of young artists amongst audiences and the art world. The Prize is awarded by a jury made up of collectors, previous recipients, and curators of the Foundation’s exhibitions. The winner sees one of their works purchased by the Foundation and donated to the Pompidou Centre’s Musée National d’Art Moderne, and receives a grant of €15,000 for a personal project abroad.

The Foundation is accessible to all free of charge and operates as a platform supporting artists, with the ambition of raising the profile of the young contemporary scene in France and throughout the world. To achieve this, it makes use of the resources provided by a global Group with 86 subsidiaries. Retaining its human element, it continues to nurture the close relationship it has developed with artists by increasing the opportunities for encounters and interaction.  Since opening in 1998, the Foundation has featured more than 1,000 artists, invited by 250 curators as part of 150 exhibitions. Alexandre Ricard, Chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard and President of the Foundation, said,

“We have come a long way in our support of the emerging art scene in France over the last twenty years. For me, the spirit of this prize is open and audacious. It is the best possible illustration of our core belief, that art is meaningless unless it is shared. My warmest congratulations to Boris Kurdi on this well-deserved award, and indeed to all the selected artists for their remarkable work. Thanks to our longstanding partnership with the Centre Pompidou, I’m am delighted that Boris Kurdi's work will be able to join the museum’s remarkable collections. And of course our laureate will also have the opportunity to undertake a personal project abroad, in collaboration with a prestigious institution”

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